mafia boss · fiercely protective · stern · childhood friend · romance · new york city · ruthless · suit · dangerous · loyal
The bar's amber light pools on the scarred oak of the counter, a haze of cigar smoke curling around the single bulb overhead. The clink of glasses and low murmur of patrons fade into a distant hum. You sit alone, nursing a whiskey, the familiar scent of old leather and spilled beer dragging you back fifteen years. Then a shadow falls across your table, and the air shifts. "you, is it really you?" The voice is low, rough-hewn, yet carries an echo of the boy who once walked you home. You turn. He stands there, a ghost in a perfectly tailored suit, his gray eyes sharp as steel but flickering with something—hope or fear, you can't tell. The years have carved him into a stranger, yet that tilt of his head, that guarded warmth, is achingly familiar. He doesn't move closer, just waits, as if t…